I have hiked up Gobblers Knob in Big Cottonwood Canyon twice before, but never with brilliant fall colors and snow on the ground. This hike was incredibly beautiful! The aspen were on fire with color and thanks to a late fall snowstorm there was a foot of snow on top of Gobblers.
This hike started at the Butler Fork trailhead in Big Cottonwood Canyon. The first half mile followed a creek to a fork at which the trail headed slightly west. Another trail split off to the right that I followed last season to Dog Lake. After another approximately .36 miles the switchbacks started and that is where I got a little too close to a cow moose still with her calf! I heard her before I saw her and quickly moved away.
After another .66 or so miles the trail leveled off for a while. This was just after another trail took off to the south that goes to Circle All Peak. The snow that had fallen two days earlier started showing up just below the switchbacks. After about 10 minutes I got to the Desolation Trail, which took me west again toward Bakers Pass. Much of this area, which went through gorgeous aspens, was shaded and had ice and snow on the trail.
This part of the trail was above a snow-covered valley on the left side that was filled with large patches of aspens. The aspens displayed yellow, gold and orange fall colors and looked amazing! Mt. Raymond came into view along this part of the trail as well. For anyone thinking of doing this trail in the winter, be aware that much of this area crosses significant avalanche paths. There were plenty of flattened and broken trees to attest to this.
Around half a mile below Bakers Pass the snow became deeper. The trail had golden aspen leaves all over the snow that had fallen from the trees. Arriving at Bakers Pass gave me a chance to take a very welcome break. The pass sits at around 9,400 feet and I had already hiked over 3 miles and gained more than 2,200 vertical feet. The summit of Gobblers Knob was still another .8 miles and over 900 additional vertical feet. In other words, it was about to get steep again!
By the way, from Bakers Pass hikers can go down to Millcreek Canyon, which is the next canyon to the north of Big Cottonwood Canyon. Or people can hike up Mt. Raymond, which I did about 6 weeks earlier. Raymond is steep and there is some interesting and somewhat tricky scrambling on the way to the summit. Hiking Mt. Raymond is an excellent experience for anyone who feels up to the challenge!
Back to the rest of the hike to the summit of Gobblers… From Bakers Pass to the false summit of Gobblers Knob was very steep and mostly covered with snow. The view in all directions was amazing and got even better on the way up. I was very happy to reach to the false summit, which is almost as high as the actual summit of Gobblers Knob. From there to the actual summit was a pretty easy hike of about 10 minutes.
This hike back down to the Butler Fork trailhead was great. The sun was higher in the sky and the fall colors against the backdrop of snow and blue sky was an amazing sight. My hike covered about 8 miles and a little over 3,100 feet of vertical gain.
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